Hurry up and waiting!

Yeah! I can finally post! I've only had internet access through the lab computer and for some reason cannot log in to Blogger from there. My office mate is letting me use her user name and password to access the internet with my laptop...so here I am! I won't have my own user name and password until next week. Which means I probably won't be calling anyone on Skype until then, unless I want to pay for internet access at a cafe this weekend...

So far I've been filling out lots of forms and then waiting for them to be processed in order to do the next step. I've been meeting lots of people in the department...we'll see how many of their names I'll actually remember. I finally got keys to my office and labs today. Really, I'm just waiting for my enrollment to process so I can get my ID, user name, scholarship $$, access to buildings after hours...

My flat is like a townhome...I'll post pics next week as I don't have them on my computer yet. My flatmates: Rachel, from Ireland, arrived the day before me and is also on a PhD scholarship studying geology (volcano stuff)...we get along well and it's great to be sharing the settling in crap with someone; Christian, whom I've barely said more than hi to, is finishing his thesis in electrical engineering and will be leaving next week; and Robin, an english girl here for some 10-week medical program and will be moving out in a couple of weeks. Rachel and Robin are both tea drinkers and tea time is a social time so I like that. The coffee here is crap...I accidentally bought the soluble kind...not even sure if they have real coffee here!

I dropped a load of $$ at Kmart yesterday. I knew I'd need to take a taxi home so I figured I might as well load up...hairdryer, flat iron, iron, towels, waste basket, etc...got home and realized I bought the wrong size sheets so I had to hike it back to Kmart to exchange. So far I'm walking everywhere and if you all thought my hill in Mankato was a killer, you should see the hill I have to walk up to get home here!

I hope to see more of the city this weekend and pop in (I'm using the local lingo already...you "pop" on by everywhere!) a bike shop to check things out. But really I need some money to come in before I can purchase anything major...anyone know of someone who'd like to buy a Ford Explorer, send them my way!